Moving Day
by Bobcat Moran
Summary: Recently promoted Commander X moves into his new quarters, with help or at least something resembling help from Zero.


_**Author's Note: **__I made the mistake of doing a canon-check after finishing this, so I now realize that this doesn't really fit anywhere in the X game continuum. Um, I'll pretend it's sometime after the first game and before X4. _

_**Disclaimer:**_ _X and Zero are property of Capcom, not me. Just in case you were having trouble figuring that out, since I bear such a striking resemblance to a multinational video game company._

-o-o-o-

It wasn't every day you saw a pile of boxes with legs moving down the hallway. At least, that was Zero's initial thought. Then he noticed that the legs ended in a familiar pair of blue boots, and there were a few strands of dark brown hair peeking over the topmost box. "Need any help there, kid?"

"Zero?" the boxes asked. "Is that you?"

"No, it's Sigma." Zero rolled his eyes. "Of course it's me. X, how can you see anything, carrying that much?"

"I haven't run into anyone yet," came the muffled reply from behind the tower of corrugated cardboard.

Zero reached up and grabbed a box from the top of the stack. "I'm going to help you. You're not going to do any good by killing yourself when you run into a wall or something."

A slightly irritated pair of green eyes glared back at him from the gap left behind by the recently removed box. "I was doing fine."

"Uh-huh. Right. So fine that you couldn't even tell who was talking to you. What's with all the boxes, anyway?"

"I'm moving."

"Moving?" Zero asked, alarmed. "You're not leaving, are you?" Every so often, usually after a big Maverick outbreak, X would threaten to leave the Hunters.

"No, I'm not leaving." X sighed. "I've been promoted."

"Promoted? Hey, that's great!" Zero suddenly frowned. "When were you planning on telling me this?"

"I didn't ask for it."

"Well, of course you didn't. Geez, knowing you, you were probably all, Oh no, I couldn't possibly take the promotion. I'm the worst Hunter in the whole world, despite having saved it several times. Oh, woe is me, for I am—'"

"Shut up, Zero," X snapped.

"Well, excuse me, Mister Sensitive." Zero quietly followed X through the winding hallways of the Maverick Hunter HQ for awhile. Left, right, then another left, left . . . "Hey, X, where are we taking this stuff, anyway?"

"Floor H, room 37."

"Oh, well, that's over by my room, in the commander's area." It took a bit for the meaning of that statement to sink in. "X, they made you a _commander_?!"

"Yeah."

"That's fantastic! What unit?"

"Seventeenth."

"Hey, that's my unit!" Zero exclaimed.

"No, it's not. Didn't you get the memo? They're putting you in charge of the 0th unit."

"X, there's no such thing as the 0th unit."

"There is now. Word is that you'll be able to handpick who you want in it."

"Handpick, huh? Nice."

"And lucky me, I'll be stuck with the hero-worshipping rookies," X complained, as they stepped into a lift. He strained to reach the buttons to go up to the floor his room was on. "Hey, Zero, hit the button for Floor H, would you?"

"Sure thing." Zero shifted his box so it was precariously perched between one arm and a knee, and pushed the button. As the lift jerked to life, he turned to his friend. "Hero-worship isn't all that bad. Could be worse. They could be coming in wanting to rearrange your circuit boards."

"Mmm," X replied noncommittally as the lift came to a stop. Zero automatically turned left as he headed out of the lift. "Zero, right turn," X said.

"Huh?"

"My room's that way," the brown haired reploid said, indicating the direction with a tilt of his head.

Zero did a u-turn, and ran down the hall as best he could to catch back up with X. "You mean you didn't want me to take this box back to my room?" he said, grinning.

"Well, you can if you want, but I don't think you'd be interested in what's in that box," X replied.

"Why? What's in here?" Zero asked, trying to shift the box so he could lift the lid and peek inside.

"Books."

"Books? This is _all_ books?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Geez, kid, you read way too much."

"Maybe you just don't read enough," X joked, setting down his boxes to punch in the passcode on his room lock.

"Hey, I take offense at that," Zero huffed. "I do too read stuff."

"Zero, manga doesn't count."

"Says who?"

"Says me. You going to come in, or are you going to just stand out there all day?" X queried, picking up the boxes again and carrying them into the room.

Zero rolled his eyes and followed the shorter reploid into the room. He looked around and noted that there were boxes everywhere, on top of the desk, under the desk, on top of the chairs . . . "Hey, X, where do you want me to dump this?" Zero asked, indicating the box he was holding.

"Wherever. I'll get it sorted out later."

Zero set the box down on top of a pile by the closet. "You got any more stuff to move?"

"No, that was the last of it," X said, moving a couple of boxes off one of the room's chairs so he could sit.

"Well, if you're all set, then I'll just take off. See you around, kid."

Zero had his hand on the doorknob when he heard X call out, "Zero, wait."

"Yeah?"

X ran a hand through his hair, making it stand on end even more than it already was. "I really didn't want this promotion."

"Yes, X, I believe we already went over that. If you're going to whine and complain, I'm not sticking around," Zero said, reaching for the doorknob again.

"No, I'm not going to — that is —" X sighed. "I've got a training session to lead tomorrow morning at 0800 hours."

"And?"

"And I have no clue what I'm going to do!"

"Well, kid, what do you usually do at training sessions?"

"Um, lots of buster and saber drills, I guess."

"So, go with that. Hey, it's your first day as commander, nobody's expecting you to come up with any brilliant new training strategies," Zero said.

"You mean like squirt gun fights?" X said, remembering an interesting incident from a month ago.

"Hey, that would've worked perfectly if we'd tried it outside," Zero protested. "Don't worry about it. You'll be fine."

"I hope so."

"I hope so, too, because if you wreck the 17th's reputation, you're going to come back to find the walls of this room painted hot pink."

"You do that, and I'll chop off all your hair while you sleep."

Zero grabbed onto his ponytail protectively. "Hey, no touching the hair!" X suppressed a snicker at his friend's indignant expression. "If that's it, I've gotta run and figure out who to recruit into my unit," Zero said.

"Go, run," X said, waving him on. As the door closed behind Zero, the brown haired reploid looked around his new room, sighed, grabbed the nearest box, and started to unpack.

**-owari-  
**


End file.
